The Black Vault - The Anzac spirt

PLAYING of the Last Post at dawn services in cities and country towns around the nation to mark Anzac Day will have special poignancy this morning. Just one Australian World War I veteran survives. John Campbell Ross, 107, a Victorian, enlisted in the army in February 1918 but did not serve overseas. Mr Ross was 18 when he joined up, and is now the last link with a war that saw nearly 62,000 killed and 137,000 wounded. But while the 421,802 Diggers who fought at Gallipoli, on the Western Front and in the Middle East have now all died, the place names where they saw bloody battle and fell in their tens of thousands remain very much alive for younger generations. Anzac Cove, Lone Pine, the Nek, the Somme, Bullecourt, Villers-Bretonneux, Pozieres, Ypres, Amiens and many more battlefields are ingrained in the national consciousness. The fact that Australian Diggers are on duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Solomons adds a sombre note to the marking of this year's Anzac Day. As Australians reflect today on the commitment and sacrifice involved in serving one's country, they will be thinking of the families of the nine Australian service people who died serving humanity in the Sea King helicopter crash in Indonesia in March last year, of Australian Protective Services officer Adam Dunning, 26, who was shot on patrol in Honiara in December 2004 and of Private Jake Kovco, 25, who died of a gunshot wound in Baghdad on Friday, the first Digger to fall in the Iraq conflict.

Concerns expressed recently about the tradition of observing Anzac Day fading with the passing of Australia's World War II veterans, who are now approaching their nineties, are unfounded. It is true that in the aftermath of the anti-war demonstrations over Australian involvement in the Vietnam War, interest in Anzac Day, mainly among among baby boomers, reached its nadir. On April 26, 1975, The Australian covered the marking of Anzac Day in a single story; in 1985, reports of anti-war protests were included in its coverage. Two decades later, however, disdain for Anzac Day among the young is a thing of the past. Thousands of young Australians flock to Anzac Cove on April 25 every year, while enthusiasm is increasing for revisiting other legendary battlefields such as France, Tobruk and the Kokoda Track, and for paying homage at sites such as Sandakan in North Borneo, where hundreds of Australian prisoners of war perished in death marches forced by the Japanese.

Record crowds line the streets for Anzac parades and increasing numbers of children are joining the thinning ranks of veterans, donning their grandfathers' service medals with pride. It is understandable that some Diggers are unsettled by the involvement of children, fearing their participation injects a carnival element into what is traditionally a solemn occasion for remembering fallen mates. These concerns must be taken seriously and handled sensitively. At the same time, Anzac Day has broadened in recent years into an occasion honouring not only the contribution of Australian servicemen and women overseas and on the home front in the world wars, but in a range of conflicts going back to the Sudan war of 1885. Few today would be aware that more than 16,000 Australians fought in the Boer War from 1899-1902, nearly as many as served in Korea in 1950-53. Even fewer would be aware of Australia's role in the 1962-66 confrontation, or Konfrontasi, between Malaysia and Indonesia over the future of Borneo. Australians have also served in conflicts in Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Afghanistan and in both Gulf wars, and in peacekeeping missions such as the present assignment in Solomon Islands and the recently completed one to East Timor.

The tally of more than 100,000 Australians killed in the 1914-18 and 1939-45 wars dwarfs the 1,500 killed in action in less epic battles. But if the younger generation sees embodied in the 8,000 Diggers who fell at Gallipoli the core Australian ideals of equality, mateship, a fair go and refusing to be bound mindlessly by hierarchy and tradition, these characteristics equally flourished among Australians on other battlefields. Maintaining the Anzac Day tradition will require participation by veterans' descendants. It is up to the Returned Services League to negotiate their involvement in a way that does not turn the occasion into a lighthearted family outing.

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